Developer: Digital Sun
Platforms: PC (Reviewed)Â and PC Game PassÂ
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG
Publisher: 11 bit studios
Moonlighter 2, you return or rather continue, as a part-time hero and part-time merchant. This time, Will and his community find themselves stranded in a strange new dimension, their new town called Tresna. Your goal isn’t just to get rich but to help rebuild and invest in the village to restore its economy and infrastructure. As you delve into the dungeons, you collect different relics and loot, then return to your shop to sell, decorate, and grow your business. Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is developed by Digital Sun and published by 11 bit studios. It’s still in early access, so there will continue to be updates and improvements to the mechanics of the game.
Since Moonlighter 2 is now fully 3D, the controls lean into a more action RPG setting. You use your melee and a ranged weapon while striking, dodging, and using your perks. I played on keyboard and mouse, but it says that it is best suited to a controller, which I can fully understand (better for convenience and comfort). The controls are pretty simple on the keyboard, your usual WASD to move along with E to strike and the space bar to dodge. The 3D setting of the game makes more use of the controls!Â
For those who haven’t played the first Moonlighter, the game still revolves around the same concept. The core loop remains dungeon crawling at night and shopkeeping by the day, but these systems have been deepened and revamped. In the dungeon, the combat is more tactical with a greater variety of enemies while gaining perks during your run. These perks allow you to modify the way you attack, loot, and modify your overall gear, each run resets. The runs can be seen as more rogue-like, as you make more meaningful choices during each run to influence your success or the goal you want to achieve. During the runs, you can select what your path is, so you want to loot, upgrade, and get recipes while still having your mini boss and main boss. The game does seem a bit harder, making money seems harder and completing a dungeon is longer and more difficult.Â
The shop has been redesigned. After you have priced your items, you have stackable perks with boosting charms. The shop continues to have the shop decorations that affect how customers behave or how much they pay. As you rebuild Tresna, you unlock new gear, better weapons and better health options. There’s also a new vault challenge that tests how much money you can make with rewards at the end.Â
The most noticeable change from the first game is the move from 2D pixel art to fully 3D, leaning more into stylisation over realism, prioritising expressive animation, wider environments and a better timeless look. Despite the massive change and dimension, the game still retains the main essence and soul of Moonlighter, which is its character designs, colour palette, and charming feel. The environments have more depth, richer details, and smoother transitions, which makes the exploration feel more immersive. Moonlighter 2’s music feels more grand and more supportive of the 3D style, as it’s more atmospheric. With its adventurous tone, it matches the open environment feel.
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is a very promising sequel. Where they have taken the core idea and have been able to retain it while layering a more strategic and in-depth scale. The shift to 3D has been able to give the game a fresh visual identity without losing the heart of its predecessor, and the roguelike system feels more full. I do wish the shop system felt less mechanised.
Overall, if you enjoyed the first Moonlighter, Moonlighter 2 is absolutely worth your attention. This isn’t just a sequel, it’s an evolution, and in many ways Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is bigger, bolder, and more ambitious.
Overall: 9/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
